AnonymousAtheist To be honest, I recall this movie from my youth, a scare tactic my grandmother used on me and my brother. Looking back, this was a horrible film to show children! I wouldn't recommend this movie, even if you actually believe it. And PLEASE don't show this to your kids. For a movie made in the 1980s, it was so-so, but overdid the "We're good, they're bad" theme.

TheRuralJuror I, like most people. saw this movie in my Baptist high school Bible class. I'm not sure if I was supposed to be dramatically affected by this series or what but....I certainly remember it. To catch up, the first movie tells us about a bunch of hippy kids who turn to Christ and get raptured up, leaving Patty and her two friends. I lovingly refer to them as the evil hippies. You see, they take the mark of the beast and betray their friend Patty AND they have crazy hair and bell bottoms. They essentially represent what the filmmakers were afraid their kids would be. Anywho, the first movie turns out to be mostly a dream where Patty wakes up from a nightmare where she was left behind to find......she's been left behind! What a terrible coincidence! The second movie tells of her moving onto a farm with 2 other random chicks. One of them's named Sandy and the other one has a name I'm sure I just can't remember it. Well, it's told in flashback from a church where a bunch of Christians are being held to be executed cause they won't take the mark. There's some random preacher there....basically so they can kill off Patty and her friend. Sandy ends up taking the mark, encouraging Patty to do the same, while the other girl loses her head.Now begins the 3rd one. Well, first off, this movie starts where the 2nd one ended. Apparently, Sandy dyed her hair and applied a lot of hairspray AND changed her shirt in the 3 seconds in between the 2 movies because she has changed A LOT. Patty gets her head lopped off during an earthquake and then preacher man escapes with some random chick who ends up getting in a car accident or something while they're running away. He leaves her, even though they're apparently madly in love, and somewhere along the line hooks up with a woman and her kid. They shack up in a cabin in the woods and, wouldn't you know it, the woman works with evil hippy woman who still dresses in bell bottoms and crazy hair even though she's apparently a big wig government person. Oh, and the girl from the car accident gets nursed back to health by some random old people.Preacher man and mom woman get by because they somehow figure out how to use a giant 80's calculator and a bar code from a book about the evils of computers (product placement on the producers' part) to make fake marks that they can go shopping with. They run into the priest from the earlier movies who now lives underground and eats rats.Bla, bla, bla....plagues happen, evil hippy lady comes to the house and gets killed by a giant bee arm made of plastic, Sandy captures the girl after she leaves the old people (now in a wheelchair), preacher and the kid get captured by whoever came with hippy lady, the mom ends up convulsed after being stung by the giant bee....eventually we end up with the kid, the preacher, and the wheelchair lady in jail. Somehow the kid gets a balloon and we get the oh-so tasteful shot of the balloon rising up past a window after the guillotine falls. Wheelchair bites it next and we see preacher man being laid down on the guillotine as the credits roll.Of course, the 4th movie opens with preacher man NOT where he ended the 3rd movie, but walking to the guillotine down the hallway where a random girl saves him. Apparently he has the same time bending powers that helped Sandy get a makeover. That movie makes less sense (hard to believe, no?) what with its zombie romances and 80's radio technology.

haxboob If you saw The Thief in the Night, then there is no reason to see the remaining 3 films in this 4 part series. I just watched Image of the Beast and guess what, it's the exact EXACT same message and dialogue. It kills me to see such an interesting idea treated in this manner, but perhaps it's a testament to Mr. Doughton that he just doesn't have anything to say, except "go get saved". That's the message, thats all you hear. "so and so isn't going to heaven because they didn't get saved", "uncle John is going to heaven because he got saved", "you should accept Christ and go get saved". Over and over again. I would love to have seen character development and plot points beyond telling me that computers are of the devil, excuse me "hand computers" are of the devil. This film was made before computers really took off and it's sad to see how paranoid Christians were of computers back then. I guess this film could be used as a time capsule of sorts to remind us of how stupid we were and still are with our religious paranoia that everything is going to end, I mean why not? Do you have the capability to see the world continuing on it's present course? Of course not, it would take a person with faith in humanity to do that, to see that our civilization could actually continue and that some day we might get rid of starvation and disease, and be a lot kinder to one another. Not in this religion, according to the time line put down, 2006 is the beginning of the end, when Russia will invade Israel. Sorry for that spoiler there kids but does anyone in their right mind see Russia invading Israel? They have NOTHING to do with one another, but somehow according to Christians it happens, and computers are the way to the devil and in 2007 the beginning of revelations happens which according to the film means that at some point, and I love this piece of information, we will be overtaken, the whole world from Antarctica to Iceland, by 200 million horses and horsemen. And they will do something bad and we will all be sorry. My favorite dialogue comes at this point which is: Fallen Preacher: "the 7th horn sounds and 200 million horses ride forth and blah blah blah" Bad Actress says: "200 million horses!?" and Fallen Preacher says "there were over 200 million horses in China at one time long ago"....OK thanks for that information, I'll stay indoors where the horsemen can't get me. I guess there are 72 virgins and a garden full of dates and, oh wait, thats another religion based on fear. Why are Christians so afraid of living on earth? Why do they need impossible stories that lead to the death and destruction of hundreds of millions of people except them to feel good about themselves? I think Russ should write about Christians need for fear-based control and paranoia, that would be very interesting to watch. As for this film? Avoid like the plague, if you saw the first film there is no need to see the others unless you need a good laugh.

Zmaximus The movie although "dated" is a GREAT tool for ministering to public. the story line is good and what it may lack in it's "datedness" it gains in its ability to explain the Bible in ways that others can understand. Yes, it is a no holds barred (including the beheadings) enactment of God's word but unlike what had been commented .. `scenes of people who refuse the mark of the beast being beheaded (to scare the audience into accepting Jesus, I guess)" ... the scenes in the movie are true to what the Bible states is coming and if seeing this movie scares someone to Jesus all I can say is Thank God the movie did it, for what would these people do when it happens to them in real life. I highly recommend this, and the entire `Thief in the night' series to anyone looking for material to do God's work.